Wednesday, 28 December 2011

I hope that you've all had a joyful and relaxing break over the Christmas weekend? How has everyone been able to spend it?As much as I promised a posting before the holiday, my blogging was sadly oushed to one side in an effort to finish up my day job in time! So although it's late, I thought I would share a few gifting images with you..

This year I've been into personalising my gifts as much as possible. I always like to make an effort so my wrapping is as much as a part of the gift as what's inside but this year I went a little further...our very chic best friends shared their first family Christmas with their beautiful baby daughter.As their home is all neutral whites and greys, I coordinated their gifts to fit in under the tree..

and for our closest friends and family I made felt initial tags which can be used next year as tree ornaments. They seemed to go down well!

my good friend (gorgeous) Julie loves a bit of sparkle so I handmade this paper with simple white spots and a good amount of glitter. This glitter is now embedded in my carpet much to Mr A's annoyance.. and although it's very simple, I liked the effect! I might wrap all of my gifts next year like this. And maybe put down some old newspaper first..

but as Mr A and I have been spending our Christmas at my family's home I coordinated our main gifts with my parents traditional red, gold and green tree..my nordic-look red and white paper was an Ikea purchase (!! I was surprised too!) and I added brown paper, Merci-purchased white tags and green twine with felt initials.And inspired by Merci in Paris, I tore strips of printed Liberty fabric to use as ribbon for smaller gifts like this one for Mr A:We have quite a lot of leftover coffee bags (purchased from Monmouth Coffee for our wedding) so I found these a useful way of wrapping tricky gifts.. I guess paper and fabric bags could also work in this way too!

I hope you all enjoyed some quiet (possibly?!) family time and are looking forward to ringing the new year in. x x x

Sunday, 11 December 2011

It's at this time of year when I get super excited and inspired by some of my favourite online magazines and retailers. I just have to share some of their fabulous work with you- hopefully it will inspire your holiday season!

Sunday, 4 December 2011

The digital publication is the perfect blend of inspired craft ideas, stylish fashion direction and spectacular wedding creativity! Three of the UK's most talented bloggers have collaborated to share their ideas and images with us girls!

Gorgeous contributions include a photography project by talented photogLisa Brownat Lisa Jane Photography and I felt very honoured to be asked to be a part of this!

I was asked to pick a favourite place of mine to spend time and find inspiration so (no surprises) I chose Petersham Nurseries! I had a lovely morning with Lisa chatting on our visit and getting to know her over a cup of tea! Check out Lisa's blog here.

Monday, 21 November 2011

In a slight break away from my regular posts, I have to introduce you to Apartment B, the fabulous brainchild of Ohio native Adam Hawkey.A few years ago, Adam spotted a gap in the interiors market for some interesting blinds for his new apartment (apartment B, just in case you were wondering...!) rather than opt for the plain Ikea ones most of his friends had. With this in mind, Adam spent his spare time over the last few years with his girlfriend (my sister!) Laura developing a super cute vintage-inspired range of rollers all now available to order via their website and onEtsy.http://www.apartment-b.com/index.php/

I have no doubt that the venture will be a huge success both in the US and here in the UK so I'm hugely excited to share this with you!

check out some of my favourite:

Our home village even gets a mention in one print!:and kittens Kevin and Lionel get their model groove on.Here's Big Kev posing against the Trellis Floral print:What a proud big sister-in-law I am! I placed my order straight away and I'm waiting on a NYC map for our glass interior door in light grey. I can't wait to see it!I'll share this with you once it's up!

Although the Apartment B website states that they do not ship outside of the US, shipping to the UK and Europe can be arranged so please contact Adam at: customerservice@apartment-b.com

Tuesday, 11 October 2011

Back in August I made a long awaited trip to Sunbury Antiques Fair at Kempton Park which is actually much closer to me than I thought. I went in search of inspiration for work, and although there were some relevant things, it was a much better trip for vintage interior finds..
These penguin books were one of my favourite finds, but to be honest, there was so much there that it would be hard to choose one stand-out treasure! I didn't buy the books (I would need a suitable home for them which I don't currently have) but I'm jealous of anyone who did snap them up!
I did buy a few budles of the brightly coloured twine for present wrapping which actually turned out to be candle wick! At £1 per bundle my Christmas present s are going to look gorgeous and bright!
I have quite a few of these antler trophies around our home, but at £9 each these were a bit of a bargain. But I was good, and just bought one!
BUT I did bring home a little friend with me! Here is Fred celebrating Mr A's birthday:
And he surprised me by dressing up yesterday to celebrate my 30th:Isn't he pretty?!

Kempton Park antiques market happens twice a month on Tuesdays and, if you can make it, it's worth a trip! Although I found some bargains, the dealers are pretty wise to what things are worth, so not everything is as competitively priced as the nick knacks that I found. The next date is Tuesday 25th October but click HERE for future dates.

Saturday, 10 September 2011

I am back after a month's break from blogging.. The past month has been incredibly busy (and still continues to be), but I'm back with some new posts to share with you all.

In mid August, Mr and and I took a weeks trip to the south of France- our first holiday since our honeymoon to Bali last year. It was great to have a break away from our busy London life and take a moment to catch our breath..

I'll be sharing a few of my french photos in future posts but I couldn't wait to share the highlight of our trip with you!

In a similar way to the Buckingham Palace exhibition of our own Royal wedding, the Principality of Monaco was displaying the dress and suit of Princess Charlene and Prince Albert at the Institut Oceanographique. The Armani gown was very beautiful, but I must say that I don't think it has a patch on our own Catherine's although very well displayed. Here's some of the shots I took:

I do love the details on Prince Albert's suit- beautiful medals.. but I was surprised that his shoes were a cream colour compared to his suit which was a paler Ivory.

I can't wait to visit our own version at Buckingham Palace soon to compare..

Saturday, 30 July 2011

a few weeks ago I finally made it to Lassco 3 Pigeons, the reclamation group's Oxfordshire branch at Milton Common.

I have been wanting to go for ages and I just had to share my trip with you! the very lovely manager was kind enough to let me take a few (ok, a lot of) shots whilst I was trecking around their site. it was a beautiful sunny afternoon and I think I could happily live in their grounds amongst the outbuildings stacked with reclaimed doors peeling with a hundred years worth of paint...I do love a wander around a reclamation yard although they always have a slightly spooky, forgotten air about them- perfect for a Halloween party- but ever so slightly disturbing... (is that just me?)

..and Milton Common really does have a reason to be even spookier than most:I think this might well have been the tree that John Price hung from back in 1785... rather grim...

I am again quite gutted that I didn't make it here whilst I was we were doing up our flat a few year back. These concrete tiles below (spanish?) would have been perfect for us. In fact, if no one beats me to it, I might just have to head back and buy them.curios of all types filled the Lassco site's main building- it was literally filled to the rafters. And in amongst the doors, taxidermy, parisian statues, railway sleepers and marble busts there's a little tea room serving the most delicious of fruit cake (I urge you to try this if you ever visit- actually one of the best I've had in a long time!) which just gives you yet another reason, if you needed one, to divert off the M40 for a few minutes (hours)...the most pristinely kept set of magazine journals I've ever seen. I think there must have been about 100 of them:this intricate parquet flooring was one of my favourite finds. Isn't this just stunning? It looked as though it has been badly infested at one time but that didn't detract from how stunning it was. I need a house to put this in. Plus a good dose of woodworming treatment just to be on the safe side...and my other favourite find was this garden table. I really, really had to control myself to stop buying it. When I got home and showed Mr A, he said 'why didn't you buy it?' and (apart from I'm not supposed to be buying anything at the moment- holiday coming up shortly!!) I actually don't know what stopped me. I do love a bit of weather-beaten rust AND I do need a desk. aybe I'll be heading back shortly for a rusty table and cement tiles.